Improvement in portable tobacco-presses



J. F. MORGAN.

Improvement in Portable Tobacco-Presses.

N0. 131,110. Patented Sep. 3,1872.

FIG- I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. FELIX MORGAN, or LEONARDTOWN, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN PORTABLE TOBACCO-PRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,110, dated September 3, 1872.

Specification describing certain Improvements in Portable Tobacco-Presses, &c., in-

vented by J. FELIX MORGAN, of Leonardtown, in the county of St. Mary and State of Maryland.

The first part of my invention relates to a new and improved mode of constructing the frame of the press so as to render it more easy to take apart and to put it together again for the purposes of transportation, &c. The second part of my invention relates to the combination, with a portable screw-press operating in a vertical plane, of a removable platform for the support of the operators during the pressing operation.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a press having my improvements applied thereto; Fig. 2, a vertical and central transverse section of the same; Fig. 3, a horizontal section taken immediately below the line of the platform, a part of the piston-head and hogshead being broken off, as also the upper part of the two braces on one side, to show the keys below.

The frame of the machine consists of three sills, A, firmly connected together by means of one or more cross-beams or girders in such manner as to form a platform, 13, for the support of the hogshead during the operation of pressing, it for this purpose being keyed firmly to the sills A by means of wedges a. On the bed thus prepared are erected standards 0, one on each side, and connected at the top by a heavy cross-beam or girder, D. These 7 standards 0 are secured to the cross-beam D and platform B in the following manner: A couple of mortises are out near their lower and upper ends, into which are passed, so as to project beyond them, two tenons or tongues, b, formed on the endsof the cross-beams, pins 0 being then passed through holes made in the end of the tongues, as clearly shown in Figs.

- 1 and 3. In order to give rigidity to the standards, and also for the purpose of enabling them to be more effectually braced, the lower ends of the. respective standards are let into the side of their corresponding sill. E E represent lateral braces for the standards, and are i made removable by withdrawing the pins and wedges d. The ends of the upper cross-beam D at the roots of the tenons b are beveled, as

shown in Fig. 2, forming tongues e, as it were, which engage with notches correspondingly shaped in the upper ends and inner sides of the standards 0, so as to give a greater resisting-surface to the cross-beam against the upward pressure exerted by the screw F. The screw F works in a nut, i, securely fastened to the cross-beam D, and is operated by means of the'double lever Gr. The lower end of the lever rests in a step formed on the upper side of a removable piston-head or plate, f, which, in turn, is fitted over the removable head g. H represents a hogshead partially filled with tobacco undergoing pressure. To each of the standards Q is temporarily secured, by means of strong pins h, or screw-bolts if deemed advisable, a stout beam, I, the outer ends of which support cross beams J, they being halved the one into the other and loosely pinned together to hold them in place. Upon the outer endsof these cross-beams are secured in the same manner two outer rails, K, to which may be secured in any suitable manof the hands that operate the screw.

Thus constructed, it is apparent the whole apparatus can be most readily taken apart for the purposes of transportation, and as readily put together again, but little if any skill being required in the operation, it being, in fact, within the skill of any ordinary farm-hands; and it will also be apparent that, while so easy to be taken apart andreconstructed, that it possesses all the essential elements of strength required in that class of machinery. Beyond this the machine possesses the merit, should any of its parts be lost, of having them easily replaced, as there are none, with the exception of the screw itself, which-cannot be made and applied on any ordinary plantation.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. In a portable tobacco-press the combina- Witnesses 2 J. O. MORGAN, WM. B. GronnARn. 

